Wild West Adventure Day 1 and 2

Day 2 of our Wild West Adventure and I thought I'd capture a little of our trip for your reading pleasure (or maybe give you a few chuckles).

We set sail yesterday right at 2pm and headed out for St. Louis. So far the only thing I know I forgot was the pitcher of sweet tea I left sitting on the counter that I made to bring with me. Hopefully, Whitney (who is staying at our house) will find it and pour it out or otherwise I may find a new type of bacteria growing at my house when I return. Now if I can only survive without my sweet tea!

FBC Nashville friends that are getting ready for Saddle Ridge Ranch VBS next week- As we were passing downtown Nashville yesterday Mary Grace pointed out the church to the girls. Elizabeth waves and says "Hello church. Sorry but we're going to Yellowstone." We will miss you guys and hope you have a great week!

Our trip to St. Louis was pretty uneventful (a good thing) and we made it with only one stop. (Yes, Mark is a driving machine!)

This morning our Elizabeth alarm clock got everyone up at 6am which actually was a good thing since we knew we had a long day ahead of us. While everyone was packing up/hitching down/unhooking/etc. Elizabeth decided she'd just take over for Mark. She climbed up into the driver's seat, grabbed the steering wheel, looked over her shoulder and said "You ready kids?" I really think she'd drive this bus if she could!

Anna is not without her share of funnies too. Tonight while I was saying bedtime prayers with the girls, which included a prayer for baby brother, Anna looks up with a grin and says "I think we should name him Baby Shrek." Ok maybe we watched a little too much of Shrek the Third today on our 15 hour drive! With a name like Sparkles Chocolate Baby Shrek who wouldn't want to come live with us!?

Did I mention that Mark drove 15 hours today? I lost count of the number of states we went through today. I do know we saw the Arch (not Micky D's) early this morning, we went over the Mississippi River once and the Missouri River at least 3 times. We drove a very long way across Nebraska and if I had been no other place I would swear the world was flat. Oh and while the kids are watching their DVD's and playing their xBox games I'm the one getting the geography lesson. Mark has borrowed a TomTom and also printed out directions on Bing Map. (I'm not sure if it's because he didn't trust the female voice coming out of the TomTom or what.) Of course they weren't all the same on parts of the drive today so he had me reconciling the differences and even getting out the big Atlas too! You really can't appreciate this unless you know how directionally challenged I am. I only caused one wrong turn and with wide open roads and very little traffic Mark soon got us back on the right track.

We did arrive at the Cheyenne KOA kampground right at 11pm (just when the female Tom said we would). It is raining here and somewhere in the 40 degrees. I know this because I was the lucky one that got to jump out of the RV and grab the late check-in instructions off the office door (while I'm still dressed in my Nashville 90 degree shorts and t-shirt)!

Oh while getting ready for bed we learned a new interesting tidbit about Mark's fancy Sleep Number bed. When traveling to mountaineous regions or higher elevations you should disconnect the air hoses because a change in air pressure can cause the bed to expand to whatever number feels like rock solid. It is just a miracle the mattress did not explode! Of course had it done so the boys would have probably thought their Call of Duty game became an interactive game. For some reason the controls wouldn't work so Mark manually let some air out and I have no idea what number I'm sleeping on tonight.

Well, everyone is all tucked in bed and sleeping to the sound of the pitter patter of rain, a humming of various snorers, and a few really loud passing trains. I think I'll call it a night too. We only have a 7 hour drive tomorrow to Jackson Hole!